The Minister of State for Local Government, represented by the Agency for Support to Local Self-Government, participated in the fifth meeting of the Steering Committee, with participants from the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Tourism and Environment, the Ministry of Health, the Albanian School of Public Administration, the National Association of Municipalities of Albania, SHKBSH, mayors and municipal councils.

In his welcoming speech, on behalf of the Minister of State for Local Government, the Acting Director General of the AMVV, Mr. Stiljan Llavdaniti, highlighted the successful cooperation to date and the commitment of the BtF Project to achieve common objectives aimed at strengthening local self-government and improving services for citizens.

Mr. Llavdaniti focused on three main issues:

• The Performance Measurement System, which measures the performance of local government and aims at data-based decision-making;
• The Performance Grant, as an incentive instrument in improving the performance of municipalities, co-financed by the Albanian Government, the Government of the Swiss Confederation and the Government of Sweden;
• The establishment of the Local Government Academy for the continuous training of local government for continuous training of human resources at the local level.

In her welcoming speech, Ms. Sabine Piccard, Head of Governance and Health, Embassy of Switzerland, emphasized the preparation by SDC of the country strategy and the need to strengthen the system’s actors and capitalize on the project’s experience, especially in terms of strategically positioning the project in assistance for Albania’s EU accession process, where local government plays an important role.

Mr. Erik Illes, Head of Development and Cooperation, Embassy of Sweden, noted that many donors are increasing funding for developing countries and that there is a need to adapt aid towards sustainability, coordination and inclusion. He briefly described the example of waste management assistance in the municipality of Berat and the institutional coordination with BtF for the Local Government Academy.

At this meeting, a presentation on the Performance Based Grant and the Municipal Performance Measurement System was made by Ms. Olta Caca, Director of the Statistics and Performance Directorate, AMMV. The presentation was interactive with discussions and questions from the participants.

This meeting confirmed the joint commitment to strengthen local capacities, to increase the quality of services to citizens and to contribute to the process of Albania’s integration into the European Union.